30,000

30,000.

That was the number that was bogging down the function of my computer.  Number of what?  Pictures.

 I have long needed to remove my pictures from my computer and upload to an external storage source, but haven't done so.   Instead, I have continue to upload pictures TO my computer until that fateful day a month or so ago when my computer had had enough of the abuse.  With Aperture and iphoto packed to the max and my disc space down to 1 MB everything started to go very wrong.  I am about to admit another awful offense.  I have another macbook that is also packed full of picture.  One more confession.  I have been uploading picture from my camera to my husband's computer because my TWO computers are so full of picture I STILL haven't removed from the hard drive.  I have committed so many violations to digital photo storage.  I thought I would share them here as. . . well, let's call it, community service.

#1:  Never store your pictures on your hard drive as your one source of storage.

#2:  ALWAYS upload the pictures to another storage space, whether on -line or an external source, such as, an external drive or a cd/dvd.  Having only one copy of pictures on your hard drive could be tragic at some point.

#3:  If you are a Mac Lover like myself, don't use Mobile Me Gallery as a storage space, because if you delete pictures from your iphoto or Aperture that change is synced with Mobile Me and they will be deleted there as well.

#4:  If you use ilife, set up separate libraries for each year and archive the previous year's libraries on an external drive.  They can still be accessed and you don't have to store all those photos on your hard drive.  This works for both iphoto and Aperture.

#5:  DELETE pictures that aren't good.  I know it is hard, but you know you have 30 of one pose or moment and you're afraid to delete a millisecond of your child's life, but really, keep the good stuff and get rid of those blurry shots.

#6:  Label your events (that's iphoto talk for the PC lovers out there).  

#7:  Print some pictures!  Photo books, frames, photo albums, scrapbooks, the possibilities are endless!
One of the favorite series of photo books I have are the adventure books I have done of my daughter for our family.  They are small, cover each season and a great way to share and record each year in pictures and words together.

#8:  Find a wonderful on-line place to share them and make sure to set up privacy settings that you feel comfortable with.  Smug Mug, Mobile Me Gallery,


Right now, I am spending a few hours a night trying to recover what I have lost and back up and export my pictures from my computer.  Tomorrow, I have a long holiday drive and 12 hours to export and store pictures.  Here is hoping for success before the new year!